I have a friend who is doing some work for one of the Internet’s earliest entrepreneurs. He started out from humble roots – one of his earliest entrepreneurial endeavors was collecting wayward hubcaps and selling them to a local body shop. But he also had an aptitude for computers so he earned himself a scholarship to Stanford.
One of his first businesses was the only one in the phone book with the word Internet in its name. People would call him up and ask, “Is this the Internet?” He’d say “yes” and try to sell them something.
Which eventually led to the innovation that earned him his fortune – he created an adult friend finder site. Through a lot of twists and turns, he realized that what people wanted to do was send/receive racy pictures and he created the platform so that they could do that. His motivation, as he tells the story today, was to help people be less lonely.
It also turns out that is one of the things people are willing to pay for on the Internet.
The story makes me think about how the Internet has evolved. I started my career as a computer consultant fresh out of college with my electrical engineering degree just as the Internet was starting to become publicly accessible. Both professionally and as a consumer, it’s been fascinating to watch how money has shaped the Internet.
We like to gripe that everyone likes short form content because of short attention spans. But might it be that investment is at play? I rarely read a 7,000 word post that is available for free, but I’ll read an article of that length from the Atlantic in part because I paid for a subscription.
There’s a lot of irritation about the numbered of sponsored spots on social media apps. But if we as users aren’t paying, should we be surprised that the corporations who pay to advertise drive content?
When we sign up to use free functionality, we pay for it in other ways – like giving up access to our data. Like using a free newsletter service often doesn’t come with the ability to export the list if we want to move on. And that’s just one of the ways our data is being used.
Speaking as a writer on WordPress, I’ve found it easy to write and publish. But way harder to market something. It seems we’ve made the Internet a great place for individuals to give content away, but a tough place to sell content.
For me it adds up to that truism you get what you pay for. I’ve recently tried to be more intentional about spending currency (whether it be time, attention, or money) on the things I value. As a start, I’ve purchased more books from the authors I read here on WP, I’ve narrowed down the applications that I use, I’ve tried subscribing to the publications that I find have merit.
Just like the story of the Internet entrepreneur, I’ve found that the word Internet is often paired with a sales pitch. So here are some things offered by authors and artists on WordPress:
Surviving Sue by Vicki Atkinson
Grow Damn It!: The Feeding and Nurturing of Life By Cheryl Oreglia
Voices: Who’s In Charge of the Committee in My Head? by Julia Preston
Don’t Lose Your Head by Dave Williams
Earthly Days By Cheryl Batavia
Midnight Victories by L.K. Latham
Jewelry by Claudette Creative Designs
Finding My Father’s Faith by Wynne Leon
Jazz on King by Todd Fulginiti
Re-Create and Celebrate by Cindy Georgakas
“Love” Art Journal Workbook by Tamara Kulish
Conversations with Dad by Deb Farris
Be a Happier Parent or Laugh Trying by Betsy Kerekes
No Time for Kings by Mark Petruska
Any other suggestions? Please put them in the comments!
I’ve published a post about personal expectations on my personal blog: Romancing the Stone
I also post at the Heart of the Matter blog, a great shared blog of personal storytelling with a podcast that features inspirational creatives and a team that teaches/speaks about corporate creativity. My book about my journey to find what fueled my dad’s indelible spark and twinkle can be found on Amazon: Finding My Father’s Faith.
You can find me on Instagram and Twitter @wynneleon
(featured photo from Pexels)